live work is listed below but is basically anything you access for work now – applications, paperwork, images (via lightroom). archive is a complete copy of assets (image + video).
in reality your onsite live work + archive could all be on one server or drive. i’ve been with g-tech for 3 or 4 years + am happy. likewise i work with retrospect for everything back based on experience + too many recommendations to count. the interface is decidedly not user friendly but once you get their geek speak down it’s relatively trouble free. i would venture to say this is the weakest link in the chain. but as long as you manually audit your backups occasionally you should be solid.

the part of this that’s all too often left out that needs to be part of the equation is a bootable backup for your desktop/s machine/s. think about running super duper on your main machine nightly or thereabouts for a bootable copy. i always order an extra internal drive the same as the main + simply copy main to that. when your main goes down you can actually still boot your computer + run it without missing a beat off the super duper copy. i’ve done it + it’s awesome having lost only a day or very little + still having access to email, all your preferences, etc. without a bootable copy you may have saved the programs but have to re-add all your actions, presets, prefs, etc.

this must be done systematically + methodically. the largest most frequent errors are human. offsite means just that.

a couple of points while looking at this:

livework A + B are rotated weekly, not simply copied. of course you can do this more or less depending on your schedule + how far out you want to be before you possibly lose something!

ideally archive is a raid unit.

archive “as necessary” = immediately after you save new work get it offsite as well.

to get tethered shooting working you’ll need a few things:

first, make sure your camera’s compatible. the canon 5dII is good to go as are most recent bodies.

next you’ll need either a usb or firewire cable (should come with camera). at this time it doesn’t look like the wireless transmission units currently on market are compatible. i imagine this could change in the future.

then download lightroom 3 + it’s as easy as file/tethered capture/start tethered capture.

overall it couldn’t be smoother. granted i was working with a short cord + raw images + all was solid. i would definitely like a few more things, however;

the ability to have the raw images on both the card + the hard drive. better yet an option to toggle back + forth so that if you’re ever card free you could always shoot tethered. better workflow wise though to have all the images in one place. if you start tethered + then jump off you’ll have images in two different place but not in a completely redundant way.

like to see more options on the shoot bar within lightroom. great to see the camera controls + have a nice lg shutter but the horizontal bit takes too much room. i’d like to be able to opt for a vertical stack as well.

this would be brilliant for video as well. when’s that out adobe? you’ve gone far enough with this beta to include video import + metalogging into lightroom so how far off are we? be way smooth to pull a histogram up with live video while you have one subject interview another etc, without you even being in the same room. the day that comes around + works wirelessly i’ll be one happy puppy as canon already has video doable over their WFT-E4A.

if that isn’t enough of the future for you in one day, try this from the photoshop front or this from ol’ pogue himself on the iphone front.

and lastly, rip jim marshall

more basic yet, only four steps to digging into FCP from larry jordan.

Nicholas Jacobs writes:

My 10 year old ACTRA actress daughter (acting since she was 5) wants to produce films. She’s very creative and a good actor and very good with voice work.

It was suggested that she write a short story and use stuffed animals as characters, film it herself, do the voice work and then work with Dad on an iMac to produce a film. We have not bought the iMac yet, and will probably start with iMovie, but may move to Final Cut Express if we need to.

Can we do this with Final Cut Express (not the pro version).

I want to get her started, hopefully with our Canon (as there are just too many options on HD right now) camera and hopefully iMovie and grow from there.

Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated.

Larry replies: Thanks for writing – and my best wishes for Elizabeth’s success. At ten-years-old, even a highly motivated kid may not be ready to make a dedicated career commitment. So, as the father of a daughter myself, here’s my take:

1. The hardest part of producing a movie is PLANNING! Thinking thru clearly what your story is, how you want to shoot it, and how you want it to look. Draw sketches of key scenes. This does not require any software – pencil, paper, and brainpower is all that’s necessary. This process is frustrating, difficult, time-consuming, and absolutely necessary. Oh, and it is also great fun.

2. The second hardest part of producing a movie is getting it shot. Making it look right. Telling your story the way you want. This, too, does not require any software; just a camera.

3. If you survive step 1 and step 2, the editing is the least of your worries. I would opt for cheap and easy – iMovie is fine. So is Sony Vegas on the PC. Don’t get hung up on tools at this point. You are deciding if you like the process.

4. If you can plan a movie, shoot a movie, and edit a movie that others want to watch — and you want to do it all AGAIN — that is the point to invest in the tools to become successful.

For now, it is enough to try.

more inspiration on mediastorm if you’re just into the viewing experience.

+ a surprising spot of goods in this month’s digitaljournalist issue including tools such as zacuto’s z- finder + the zoom H4 that i’m down with.

inklet is proving to be a super cool idea though i’m waiting for it to expand a bit before diving in. price looks right + the maker seems dialed into what we’re after so let me know if you grab one.

google is always throwing a wrench in tech plans so never count them out. though still in beta you can ask for an invite for their retooled phone service (they bought out a working company awhile back) that promises to ring all your phones at once, email text versions of your messages to you, allow conference calls + for the spy in us all even record calls.

the other side of the adding new equipment conundrum is simply making better use of what you have. one nearly universal application here is lightroom. not only is the ver 3 beta out now with some fluid additions + changes but you can also retool your workflow with tools that are in place now. here’s a great example via the guys at the lightroom lab on keywording.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Keyword Sets from David Marx on Vimeo.

very hard to put it bluntly.

what do ya mean? didn’t you just show up there with your camera + shoot a bit?

not on your life – but glad it came across as that calm + natural.

looking around through the glimmer + shine existing everywhere today + it’s easy to find great work. it’s also easy to assume that this work happens on it’s own or really doesn’t have much of a backstory. but like a good film, without backstory you get a spineless mess that usually collapses on itself.

if you don’t believe me take a look at recent contest winners + start your reverse engineering. in a time crunched, cgi soaked industry it’s relatively easy to assume, “ahh, i have a 5DII with hd i can pop that sucker up on my tripod anywhere + put a fancy pants little ditty together.” and nothing could be further from the truth.

my current estimate in regards to motion work is that it takes quad as long as still image work. of course we’re not limited to pictures (motion or still) with this theme. office time, production work, personal projects, life’s little gifts – everything is evolving + to capitalize on it all takes a unique blend.

here are a few things i’ve found lately that currently or shortly will be enlisted in the effort.

hitchcock – luv keeping ideas moving forward. i firmly believe that if you’re not doing something everyday toward your goals then they’re not happening

evernote’s latest upgrade – great cross everything platform for organizing the myriad vitals

google wave – i was just invited to beta test this potential game changing tool. especially interested in it as project development tool

tilt + shift – purely for the visual fun

What

]]> http://heathkorvola.com/blog/2008/04/30/q-a-workflow/feed/ 0 http://heathkorvola.com/blog/2008/04/07/releases-in-three-prime-parts-including-lightroom/ http://heathkorvola.com/blog/2008/04/07/releases-in-three-prime-parts-including-lightroom/#comments Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:22:00 +0000 heath http://heathkorvola.com/blog/2008/04/07/releases-in-three-prime-parts-including-lightroom/ Without going into all the details, releases in all current formats (model, minor & property) are an integral part of photography today. If you

]]> http://heathkorvola.com/blog/2008/04/07/releases-in-three-prime-parts-including-lightroom/feed/ 0 http://heathkorvola.com/blog/2008/01/10/keep-em-all-and-sort-em-later/ http://heathkorvola.com/blog/2008/01/10/keep-em-all-and-sort-em-later/#comments Thu, 10 Jan 2008 20:06:51 +0000 heath http://heathkorvola.com/blog/2008/01/10/keep-em-all-and-sort-em-later/ Going through older work including slides from more than a decade ago and keep hearing the voices of archiving. “Hey Heath, the best way to be a better shooter is to get a larger garbage can”, ie, edit, edit, edit (and trash the rest) and the polar opposite of “there’s still 100+ GB of room left in the archives”, ie, keep everything that comes through.

Feel like I’ve transitioned from the former to the latter. With drive space as cheap as it is and getting cheaper why not save the edit time and keep it all. Doesn’t mean that the garbage gets out to everyone but it’s great to save the time of all the stars and ratings that DAM advocates can’t get enough of. And in the end, it’s always enjoyable to dig into the archives and find the gems.

Found these from an adventurous project in Ecuador a few years back. Don’t trash images – keep ‘em all and sort ‘em later. Imagine if you still had all those negatives from your past floating around to go through?

]]> http://heathkorvola.com/blog/2008/01/10/keep-em-all-and-sort-em-later/feed/ 0 http://heathkorvola.com/blog/2007/09/04/copyright-21st-century-style/ http://heathkorvola.com/blog/2007/09/04/copyright-21st-century-style/#comments Tue, 04 Sep 2007 18:45:00 +0000 heath http://heathkorvola.com/blog/?p=24 Our workflow, like most of you I hope, intrinsically features images for copyright submission at the US Copyright Office within Library of Congress. This is a simple process that the government has put at our disposal for protection of unique works. I view this as a two fold dealing: ONE, as a great step for creators of media or art (musicians, writers, performers, etc) to protect our livelihood. Secondly, it’s a great offering for our clients as it protects their interests and is a definite step we can offer in our in house processing.

The Copyright Office, along with various photography groups such as ASMP, has been working on electronic registration for some time. Recently, I was selected as a beta tester for this system and am now in the process of putting it through the paces. I’ll keep you informed as to how it works but in the meantime don’t hesitate to chime in with ideas. With electronic registration possible soon there’s absolutely no excuse not to have this step in your workflow. In our workflow within Lightroom it’s a single button click via our presets that my assistant initates.

Also received an email update from the Copyright Alliance. The CA is a non-profit that promotes copyright protection and growth across fields. They’ve put together a comprehensive site with materials and articles covering FAQ’s, intellectual property rights, orphan works, industry practices and more.

For more information in general on copyright issues or how to register your work try the US Copyright Office via the Visual Arts link or find tutorials like this ASMP one. I’ll touch on my specific workflow in another post but definitely get your lo-rez jpgs copyright bound.

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